Inversion: What We Know

Share.

Gravity...how does that work?

By Kristine Steimer

Inversion is a brand new third-person shooter from Saber Interactive. It clearly draws inspiration from other famous games in the genre like Gears of War and Dead Space. To set it apart from the crowd, Inversion incorporates (and perverts) the laws of gravity, turning them into weapons.

So am I going to be floating around like I'm in space? Yes, there will be zero gravity sections where you'll have to float from steady structure to steady structure while simultaneously fighting off enemies. There are also vector changes, where you'll change perspectives (i.e. start running up the side of a building) but still move normally. Finally, scattered around normal levels are anomalies or bubbles where there's no gravity.

In terms of weaponry, you have something called a "grav link" that appears to be similar to Dead Space's telekinesis power. You use it to create anomalies, either disarming bad guys or lifting them in the air. If you unleash it again you can pull an enemy toward you, slam him down on the ground and pull off a curb stomp. That's gotta hurt.

Alright, what's the story? An unknown alien enemy is using gravity as a weapon against Earth. You star as Davis Russel. Your wife was murdered by the mysterious invaders and your daughter is missing. More of the story will be revealed as time goes on, but for now that's all you get.

Oh look, a vector change!

Hmm, the main character looks familiar. That could be because Davis Russel appears to be a mixture of other famous protagonists. He has Nathan Drake from Uncharted's build and baggy jeans, Isaac from Dead Space's glowy suit piece and Marcus Fenix from Gears of War's "hoo-rah" personality.

Russel enjoys saying things like, "Kill them bitches."

Okay, so how does it play? If you've ever played a third-person shooter, the controls should feel familiar to you. You hustle to get behind cover and take out enemies from there. You can hold two guns at a time along with grenades, and I tried out a basic assault rifle and sniper rifle, both which felt fine.

The build I played had a couple kinks that need to be addressed – the aiming reticule was fairly unresponsive so moving it around was a chore (this is something they are fixing) and the "grav link" was difficult to execute. The demo I played also didn't utilize the gravity elements as much as I'd hoped. I imagine later levels will include more, but what I experienced felt like an average shooter with a few gravity elements tossed in here and there.

I really enjoyed that all cover is destructible, so you can't hang out in the same spot forever. I was also able to take down a swarm of enemies hiding out in an abandoned structure by targeting the building's support system.

Cool…hey, wait a second. That looks like a Pendulum Lancer from Gears of War...